Hi all,
I was wondering if any fellow designers can think up of "Weapons" to be used in a Sci-Fi theme (Starships).
Here is the list that I have so far:
-Laser Canon
-Torpedo
-Laser Beam
-Ion Blaster
-Gauss Rifle
-Concussion Missile
-Particle Canon
-Disruptor Pulse
-Death Ray
If anyone can add to this list, that would be really appreciated!
Many thanks.
NOTE: My personal favorite is the "Death Ray"... :)
there are many topics that can give you inspiration on what weapons to create, quantum and theoretical physics, futurist articles, your imagination can only go so far
for example, do you know what a rail gun is?
its an electro magnatic field accelerating a projectile, possibly to near light speed. the kinetic energy in the projectile fired at that speed is enough to create massive explosive force even if its nothing more than a metal piece
a big enough rail gun placed in space can destroy whole planets when fired due to the near frictionless environment of space. in principle a rail gun is rock throwing in space with deadly consequences shoudl the targets have life on them
names like "death ray" and "laser cannon" are boring in my opinion, a "laser beam" isnt even a weapon, its what a laser is. why not borrow from existing theories and even do some prophecy work while you are at it?
and must they be beams and projectiles? why not a computer virus destroying their systems on the inside? or drones not affected by electromagnetic wave shields which go past them and literally eat the ship? or eat the sheild generator for your beams to be effective?
thats another point, what defense options does the recieving end of these weapons have? gotta think of your offense and defense at the same time to keep the game interesting
If you have played any 4x space strategy games you have seen that space weapons generaly break down into 3 categories:
1. Lasers/Particle Beams
2. Rail Guns/Mass Drivers
3. Missiles/Torpedoes
That is pretty much encompasses the weaponry that we can make now or in the next 50 years, and could theoretically all scale up to extreme levels in the distant future.
Gravity weapons, disruptors, etc are more rare, and their effects are theoretically extreme enough to leave them as special weapons in most cases.
Google Galactic Civilizations 2(or any other space strategy game) tech tree and weapons for a good start.
Try this exercise:
Make a list of all of the first words that you have there (Laser, Ion, Gauss, Concussion, Particle, Disruptor, Death) and make a second list of all of the second words (Cannon, Torpedo, Beam, Blaster, Rifle, Missile, Pulse, Ray, Gun), and then try different combinations.
Some examples:
Concussion Beam
Ion Cannon
Particle Rifle
Death Pulse
Then add more words to both lists and do the exercise all over again.
Depends on your game but could you expand into other sorts of mayhem? Perhaps things that work on the beings on the ships but leave the equipment mostly intact?
How about weapons that disrupt biological processes, such as the Adrenalin Grenade, Cell Wall Disruptor or Bio-Thermal Accelerate?
Psychological? Phobia Bomb? Guns loaded with Euphoria Shot? Panic Blaster?
Of course, if taking the enemy ship isn't worth the time then by all means blow it up, and everything else in the nearby space-time continuum. Then there would be the big stuff - Planet Busters, Sun Killers, Causality-Anti-Causality missiles?
- KrisW
Many thanks for that reference... I checked it out and it has a bunch of weapons. Some I had, others are variants but there are some that are interesting. They use a numbering scheme such a Laser Mark I, Laser Mark II, etc. But there are other ones such as: Subspace Blaster, Disruptor and Particle Beam.
You might want to explore the tvtropes.com areas pertaining to scifi weaponry, such as this page:
Did you try looking through the tech tree of some sf games? For example:
- X-com: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xcom
- Master of Orion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_orion
- Reunion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reunion_(video_game)
the gravity spiker gun.
the dubstep gun
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that's another point, what defense options does the receiving end of these weapons have? gotta think of your offense and defense at the same time to keep the game interesting
More complicated items fall into the *Enhancement* section which you get from your "Research Facility". Enhancements are OPTIONAL items used in the building of a starship. So a "computer virus" might be an offensive Enhancement. I have planned an enhancement called the "Byers' Algorithm", this might be similar to your idea of a computer virus... There are also defensive enhancements such as "Shield Regenerator"...
There are also "Event-driven" enhancements such as "Hidden Cargo Hold" for smuggling missions or "Luxury Quarters" for escort missions. These are just examples, but there are other enhancements that work in tandem with events/missions.